Kalalau's Korner

Workshop Notes: Signs Have Parts ... and Much More!

2009-07-03T00:49:00.009-07:00

Signs Have Parts … and Much More!

by:

Carl Schroeder

Coordinator

American Sign Language Studies Program

to be presented at
Silent Weekend

Western Oregon University

August 14-16, 2009

Abstract: American Sign Language (ASL) is a rule-governed language which can be said to be broken into five language components: phonology, semantics, syntax, discourse, and pragmatics. This workshop shall focus on linguistic networks of all components of ASL, starting with the underlying structure--the lexicon--undergoing linguistic regulations and applications before arriving at the surface structure--the utterance. Participants will examine each language component and then synthesize the linguistic procedures of all components in good, clear ASL.

In the other words: During this workshop, we will have noted that users of ASL know tens of thousands of signs, most of which they can locate in a fraction of a second. Such huge numbers, and such efficiency in finding those required, suggest that these signs are carefully organized, not just stacked in random heaps. This workshop will discuss the five language components retrieving signs from the mental dictionary (lexicon) to the surface structure (utterance). The workshop participants shall witness the results of a normal ASL retrieval process.

ASL Phonology: The structure of signs (hand shapes, palm orientations, locations, non-manual expressions and modifier movements).

Participants shall examine marked and unmarked hand configurations, identify the articulatory bundles, and apply the H-deletions in sign productions.

ASL Semantics: The meanings of signs and classifiers, and the networks of meanings among them.

Participants shall analyze two basic systems of signs used in ASL: arbitrary and descriptive. They shall identify the basic distinction between signs and classifiers.

ASL Syntax: The way signs are strung together to convey thoughts and ideas; the spherical patterns of sentence construction.

Participants shall do grammar by employing insights from contemporary linguistic theories and building them into a practical and coherent system that stays within ASL models.

ASL Discourse: The structure of stories, explanations, descriptions, and other signing constructions longer than sentences.

Participants shall analyze discourse and realize that ASL, action and knowledge are interdependent. They will study how ASL is used in social interaction by examining shared knowledge and assumptions between signers and signees.

ASL Pragmatics: The variations in the use according to the context and purpose.

Participants shall examine three fundamental aspects of human experience involving ASL: what Deaf people do, what Deaf people know, and the things Deaf people make and use.

Silent Weekend at Western Oregon University

2009-07-03T00:37:00.002-07:00

On behalf of the ASL/English Interpreting Program at Western Oregon University, the Oregon Department of Education’s Educational Interpreter Subcommittee, the Regional Resource Center on Deafness, the Oregon Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and the Western Region Interpreter Education Center, we would like to invite you to join us for Western Oregon University’s Silent Weekend, August 14-16, 2009 in Monmouth, Oregon. This weekend is for Deaf and hearing students, interpreters, interpreter educators, and ASL instructors. Visit www.wou.edu

Saturday, August 15th, 9:00am-12:00pm

Expanding Your Balloon: ASL Strategies - Brenda Aron

This workshop will provide participants an opportunity to learn 7 American Sign Language contextualizing and expansion strategies that are commonly used in American Sign Language and will provide clear messages for ASL signers. Participants will have the opportunity to observe, analyze ASL signers and then apply the concepts from pictures and English texts to ASL, utilizing expansion techniques.

Pay Yourself First: How to Establish Yourself as a Freelance Interpreter - Jill Baker
This workshop will explore the implications of being incorporated vs. working as a self-employed interpreter. Examine ways to save for retirement. Explore the tax benefits of Deferred Compensation, retirement plans, 503(b) accounts, and Roth IRA’s.

Discourse Mapping in Educational Settings - Elisa Maroney

Discourse features and discourse mapping will be reviewed, demonstrated, and practiced. Educational discourse in ASL and English will be analyzed using discourse mapping techniques for preparation and hypothesis testing, and application to production issues related to spatial organization.

English Idioms and Conceptual Accuracy - Kathryn Montoya

Participants will analyze several commonly (and some not so commonly) used idioms and decide the best and most accurate way to convey the meaning of the idiom in ASL. Participants will learn why conceptual accuracy is extremely important and without it the meaning can be completely lost.

Interpreting Pronouns: ASL to English - Tamara Moxham

This workshop examines interpreting techniques addressing the function of pronoun use in ASL and English, focusing on word choices in English when the gender is not clear in ASL.

Interpreting Foreign Language Instruction - Steve Nail

This professional development workshop identifies the unique demands and challenges inherent in interpreting foreign language classroom instruction and discusses the skills needed to meet these demands and challenges. The workshop emphasizes understanding the goals of the student and the teacher in order to customize the interpreting approach to support these goals. Using the philosophies of Popular Education, Andragogy and The Collaborative Learning Environment, this learner-driven, facilitated workshop focuses on transferring skills the interpreter already has to new content areas and identifying knowledge gaps that need to be filled before undertaking these unique and challenging assignments

Signs Have Parts….and Much More! - Carl Schroeder

American Sign Language (ASL) is a rule-governed language which can be said to be broken into five language components: phonology, semantics, syntax, discourse, and pragmatics. This workshop shall focus on linguistic networks of all components of ASL, starting with the underlying structure--the lexicon--undergoing linguistic regulations and applications before arriving at the surface structure--the utterance. Participants will examine each language component and then synthesize the linguistic procedures of all components in good, clear ASL.

Saturday, August 15th, 1:30-4:30pm

Disability Paradigms 101 for Interpreters - Steve Nail

This workshop/professional discussion (previously titled “Interpreter Plus: A Discussion of the Issues Facing Interpreters with Disabilities”) defines the differences between the Medical/Rehabilitative view of disability and the Socio-Ecological Model of (capitol D) Disability. Through interactive group discussion with interpreters, Deaf and hearing stakeholders, and Disability Studies scholars, this workshop seeks to illuminate the influences that the hegemonic Medical/Rehabilitative paradigm has on the profession of interpreting and how such influences affect our work, and also seeks to create more physical, attitudinal, and cultural access for Disabled interpreters in our field by recognizing Disability as a social identity and defining the need for culturally appropriate representation in the interpreter population.

Fingerspelling & Numbers: Improve your Accuracy - Kathryn Montoya

Participants will gain an understanding as to the extreme importance of accurate fingerspelling. The Fingerspelling/Numbers Workbook will be used to teach techniques to improve both receptive and expressive fingerspelling skills. Participants will also learn techniques to allow students to use numbers in every situation accurately and effectively, both receptively and expressively.

British Sign Language: Posh or Rubbish? - Brad Houck

BSL is one of many sign languages throughout the world. Learning another foreign sign language augments the awareness of our own sign language and how it compares or differs with other languages, particularly in countries where English is the dominant language. Approximately 100-150 signs, along with fingerspelling and numbers, will be taught in this 3 hour course along with exercises in basic communication in a challenging and fun manner. Historical and cultural developments of BSL will also be examined. Posh or rubbish? You decide!!

Prosodic Features in ASL Discourse - Elisa Maroney

In this workshop, participants will investigate prosody, its definition and prosodic features in American Sign Language and in spoken English. Specifically, participants will identify prosodic features in child ASL and teacher’s English. Participants will practice ASL to English from child ASL source material and English to ASL with teacher talk as the source. They will discuss the application of prosody to the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA).

Sign What You Mean, Mean What You Sign - Brenda Aron

ASL is a conceptual language. The translation of English phrases such as “My nose is running”, “There is a run in my stocking”, “He is running at the mouth” do not all use the same signs. This workshop is designed for those who wish to learn how to apply correct ASL concepts in translating from English into ASL. This workshop will consist of a selected list of 12 most commonly used multiple meaning words.

Interpreting K-12 Math - Paul Glaser

This workshop will help interpreters interpret mathematics signs and practice with signs in number systems, basic math, algebra, graphs, geometry, statistics, calculus, and math symbols

Sunday, August 16th, 9:00-11am

What Are Those X@!$%& Signs? - Brenda Aron

There are a great many ASL expressions that do not always have equivalent English words in translation however these are frequently used expressions by ASL signers. This workshop introduces participants to those expressions, their meaning and how these are used in context. This workshop covers 55 ASL expressions.

Developing Your Tool Box: Prepping for that Gig - Susie Friberg and Jill Baker

Various strategies and hands-on practice will be taught to assist beginning interpreters in prepping for an assignment in the community and post-secondary settings. Interpreters will be presented with various scenarios to practice finding information for an assignment. This will allow students to ascertain information for an actual assignment.

Preparing for the EIPA Performance Test - Elisa Maroney

This workshop will provide participants with resources on preparing for the EIPA performance test.

Fingerspelling & Numbers: Workbook Curriculum - Kathryn Montoya

Participants will gain an understanding as to the extreme importance of accurate fingerspelling. The Workbook will be demonstrated and used to show instructors how to work with their students to improve both their receptive and expressive fingerspelling skills. Participants will also learn techniques to allow students to use numbers in every situation accurately and effectively both receptively and expressively.

Introduction to Demand-Control Schema - Amanda Smith

This workshop will focus on introducing the demand-control schema constructs to working interpreters and pre-professionals. Once establishing the basics, the participants will be led through various activities that will apply the schema to their everyday work whether that be interpreting, developing interpreting skills, or mentoring.

Ebonics and ASL Are Here to Stay

2009-07-01T07:04:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeer explains how African-American people denied the Oakland School Board's decision to recognize Ebonics as a valid linguistic system in 1996. Ebonics was not in a dictionary, they said. There exists striking similarities between rejecting Ebonics and denying American Sign Language: hostile criticism, misinformation, and avoidance.

A Big Question for Children with Cochlear Implants

2009-06-30T23:57:00.001-07:00

A discussion/question vlog: Carl Schroeder wonders if the intriguing connections between music and cognitive development in children with CI. Research shows that music can help children (hearing) with other disabilities (dyslexia, learning difficulties, etc.) listen and learn. Can children with CI benefit from the connections between music and education?

From ASL to Audism

2009-06-30T18:08:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder discusses how people in the past said no to ASL and today they say no to audism.

ASL Literature Conference by Deafmom3ASL

2009-06-30T07:23:00.001-07:00

A guest vlog. See what was found here! In 1991, I was a co-presenter with Rachel Crain. Our topic was about poetic aspects in American Sign Language. We should rekindle this type of conference.

YES to AUDISM

2009-06-30T00:41:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder explains that Church people and believers used to say no to Galileo Galilei's discovery in the 16-17th century that the earth rotates around the sun. Today there are certain people who say no to Audism, the term indicating that it's better to hear than to be Deaf.

Cochlear Implants and Dad

2009-06-29T21:00:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder discusses how the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) position statement respecting Deaf individuals no matter what technology they use had influenced his father George who was born Deaf into pursuing cochlear implants (CI). However, it was his health insurance and medical companies who turned down his bid for CI. His father went through a lot of meetings and trainings to prepare for such impracticality of CI.

Whispering in American Sign Language: Part 2

2009-06-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

An "ASL Whispering" vlog: Carl Schroeder shows another way of whispering in ASL. Enjoy!

Deaf Baby Almost Taken Away from Deaf Parents

2009-06-28T16:06:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder explains how his Deaf friends almost lost their Deaf baby to our government in 1980s when baby hearing test became mandatory. Social workers who threatened to take away their baby were more concerned about the baby's residual hearing than they were about American Sign Language (ASL), the language the baby was born into. (The baby's parents and grandparents, both maternal and paternal, are Deaf.) The government didn't, and still doesn't, think ASL matters, especially when there is some residual hearing.

UFO and Deaf Children on February 3rd

2009-06-28T09:21:00.001-07:00

An entertainment vlog: Carl Schroeder tells about his school days when he believed all 12 years old would be taken by an UFO on February 3rd. His reading teacher Miss Edith Faith simply reinforced his belief and he still wants to believe it today. Carl is simply a sucker for believing many creative stories.

From Audism Discussion: Frank McCracken

2009-06-27T21:29:00.001-07:00

A special guest vlog: Carl Schroeder videotaped a story told by Frank McCracken during the Audism Unveiled panel discussion at Central Oregon Communicty College today. Frank went to Colorado School for the Deaf and he later graduated from the school in 1944. The other panelists are Bob Warr and Peter Quint. Please observe his use of American Sign Language and how it shaped and influenced him. My apologies for such a poor video.

Whispering in American Sign Language: Part 1

2009-06-27T07:20:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder talks about how his classmates helped each other in school.

What Then is ASL Studies?

2009-06-26T21:15:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder explains what his program at Western Oregon University (WOU) entails. (1) ASL Studies aims to examine ASL in terms of linguitics and its relation to power, The goal is to expose power relationships and to examine how these relationships influence and shape Deaf people. (2) ASL Studies is not simply the study of ASL. Its objective is to understand ASL in all its complex forms and to analyze the social and political context within which ASL manifests itself. (3) ASL Studies attempts to expose and reconcile the division of knowledge...between the knower and the known, between the observer and what is being observed. Deaf people use a different channel, SIGHT, through which information, knowledge and communication are conveyed.

An Email from my Former ASL Student

2009-06-25T00:06:00.003-07:00

-----Original Message-----

From: Sarah Hilferty
To: Carl Schroeder

Subject: How are you doing?
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:54:27 -0700

Hi! Remember your student from New Urban High School in Milwaukie? I just wanted to say hello and let you know how I am doing, it's been awhile, huh? I just recently graduated New Urban on the 4th of June, and now attending summer classes at PCC. I was hoping to get into the interpreters program this year, but I have a few more pre-requisites that I need to get before I can enter into it. It's a drag that I have to waite until next fall to start. But other than school I just got my first job yesterday :] It's at a grocery store right down the street from my new apartment. I just moved Memorial Day weekend, into a very nice apartment in Westmoreland with my boyfriend.

I just got an assignment from a teacher to participate in an activity and I happened to see your name on a "Audism Unveiled: An Examination of Discrimination and Prejudice" and just learned about the organization in my Deaf Studies and I saw it on the internet, and was like, "Hey, I remember that name! The best teacher I ever had!" I really enjoyed your class that you taught me, and I am still interested and anxious to go to WOU. How are you liking it? Every time I get into sign language, the class ends and I start loosing my fluency and memory, I was thinking of volunteering at a deaf school to keep me proficient, is there any schools that you recommend around the portland area? Or is there other ways that would help me in staying active with my ASL?

Thank you for your time to read this, Carl.

Sarah Hilferty
--------------------

Wetenschapen: Passion to Teach and Learn

2009-06-23T13:00:00.009-07:00

Teaching Philosophy

by

Carl N. Schroeder, M.Ed.

American Sign Language Studies
Western Oregon University

Quote from Candidate Statement:

"My vocation to education has two inextricably linked parts of a Dutch term that I learned when I was a young Dutch boy, wetenschapen: weten is in Dutch meaning the whole spectrum of knowledge (wit); and schapen, in Dutch meaning the shaping or leading (leading students into a world in which they learn with disciplined creativity). Accordingly, my philosophy of teaching follows my childhood ideas about how people learn. I have elaborated my teaching philosophy "Passion to Teach and Learn" in my portfolio. (This short paragraph on teaching philosophy is tough to write because I proceeded it through four different languages: Gebarentaal (Dutch Sign Language), Dutch, ASL and English.)"

Wetenschapen: Passion to Teach and Learn

The Dutch word wetenschapen in English translation is a loose form of the word education. However, with it broken down, it can be seen to mean wit-shaping, i.e., molding the brain, shaping the wit to become a deep/faster thinker. Whereas education can be translated to mean giving information to another but not actually being immersed in the process of shaping/molding. To me, wetenschapen is close to mentoring rather than simply educating.

My first principle of professoriate is always demonstrate a passion to learn and teach. There is no unique recipe for passion that works for learning and teaching. While for some students in the newly designed ASL program, it is important to know how to use ASL exclusively, others find the ideas for the courses in ASL interesting by themselves. The final grade has been a top-priority for many students, but I always do my best to explain that it should not be an ultimate goal for acquiring skills in ASL. Otherwise students may lose the skills in ASL after the course is over and that is very undesirable for me. Therefore it is necessary for the passion to learn and teach from different angles.

I always start the first class with a brief historical introduction, explaining my credentials, why ASL we are studying is important, and where ASL is used today. Then I try to explain the ideas behind linguistics and philosophy, propagating the idea that ASL can be approached from two different perspectives, science and art. For example, educators of ASL inform that ASL can be said to be the product of social, educational and cultural developments of only the last two centuries; linguists inform that ASL is a language independent from all other languages by its own rule-governed communication system. ASL can by its very nature not be satisfactorily described on paper; the parts of signs being learned must be examined at as early a stage as possible.

Another very important source for my passion to teach and learn is enthusiasm for acquiring and mastering ASL. My enthusiasm must be infectious enough to transmit to the students. In this case students will learn ASL because of ASL itself and not only because it is used somewhere else. My goal here is to share the beauty of ASL.

The second principle of my professoriate is mentor-mentee learning. Through my pondering aout teaching philosophy, I thought back to my undergraduate cell biology class at Floyd College in Rome, Georgia more than thirty-five years ago. Even though I cannot remember a single fact from the lectures, I can remember at least two activities I had with Professor David Cook, who taught part-time at Floyd. I remember discussing with fascination the probabilities of taking pictures of cell membrane under the elctromicroscope in the lab. The second experience Iremember was having a delightful luch with him and a sign language interpreter. I rememer this luch becuase Professor Cook tiik me to Georgia Highlands College were he was Professor Emeritus and introduced me as one of his extraordinary students to his colleagues.

Later, in 1982, during my senior year at Gallaudet College (now University), the world's only institution of higher learning exclusively for the Deaf in Washington, D.C., my major advisor Professor Trent Batson urged me that I apply for a fellowship underwritten by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. I was selected in the competition with over 1,400 applications for only 70 Fellows, and I traveled and studied in The Netherlands, the country of my birth, for one year after my graduation from Gallaudet in 1983.

in 2005, when I was teaching at Montgomery College, a student of mine Alison Niska was selected as a scholar to present her paper on "Bilingual Education for the Deaf: Facilitating Learning and Equipping Students to Reach their Potential" in the 2005 Beacon Conference for Student Scholars, and I was mentioned as her mentor. Through this thought process I realized that to really remember something, you have to be inspired.

The final principle of my professoriate is modeling professional behavior and respect. To me learning and teaching is palpable: When I can sense it in a student's visible delight in acquiring and using ASL; when I can read the excitement in student's essay about ASL. I cannot say anything better than W. B. Yeats about teaching when he wrote: "Education is not filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

I can best summarize my personal teaching philosophy in one word: passion. Students will enjoy ASL if they have passion to pursue wetenschapen, the molding of wits.

;-)

The $891M Mask Revisited: Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities

2009-06-22T16:08:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder shows the Court papers (CG Docket No. 03-123 and WC Docket No. 05-196) with a very specific federal definition of Deaf people as "Individuals with Hearing and Speech Disabilities." In the eyes of our government, we are IHSD people. There is ABSOLUTELY no mention of American Sign Language (ASL) in these court papers. We have YET to tell about ourselves and our needs for information, knowledge and communication in ASL. We need to take out the $891m mask!

Teaching and Thinking

2009-06-22T09:43:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder questions whether there exists the whole number 4. Maybe it is just the connection of reduced parts in and for the whole 4.

ASL: Divide et Impera

2009-06-21T10:42:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder discusses the stem of the term DIVERSE (DIVision, DIVide, etc.) and the truth of ASL meaning that it's okay to tell a lie about the Deaf. Yes, there are various modes of communication for the Deaf which cannot be adequately understood in ASL and English as long as their origins are obscured. There are so many lies about ASL and Deaf people there exists such a mask...the mask that rules the revenue of $891 million in VRS. ASL is not futile! Deaf people are not selfish!

"ASL" or Not?

2009-06-20T20:29:00.005-07:00

The topic of American Sign Language (ASL) is as impossible to discuss as it is important! If we take the subject for granted, however, our hearing allies and we ourselves could legitimately ask why it wasn't discussed. So here goes.

The reason ASL is so important is that good ASL is the necessary basis for good communication. The better one's ASL skills are, the better the communication will be. Any honest user of ASL will admit that when the ASL flows, then good communication literally makes itself, without problems, enabling ready clarifications without the need for repetitions. On the other hand, if the ASL is poor, and it doesn't flow, then even the best user of ASL and even top-notch interpreters will not be able to make good communication out of it.

There is no simple answer to the very elusive question of what makes good ASL. ASL cannot be judged by any criteria previously used to evaluate the use of spoken languages, because in that case, fragmented ASL with fingerpselled terms might sometimes be judged to be more desirable than perfect ASL. Nor do parts of signs--hand shapes, palm orientations, locations, non-manual expressions, and modifier movements--tell the whole story of ASL, because particular expressions differ from utterance to utterance.

Here are some general considerations, laden with my biases. (Yes, we all do have our own biases.)

Make up as many new signs--"non-translatable," or difficult-to-translate ones--as you can to correspond to our illustration of the ASL/DEAF doors. In each case, indicate the specific reason why you think each sign reflects what it does. Be sure to try to think of as many new signs as you can before choosing the BEST sign.

Now, if you've chosen the BEST new sign, you should be able to discuss how you arrived at choosing this BRAND NEW sign. Would you be able to translate it in another language, namely, English?

Here are my biases. Those who are inside the DEAF door would say no, that this BRAND NEW sign is not in the ASL dictionary. Those who are inside the ASL door would celebrate the newness of it.

;-) Carl

Signist, Signistics, Signumption, etc.

2009-06-20T19:18:00.001-07:00

An entertainment vlog: Carl Schroeder introduces some new words that are not in a dictionary: signist, signistics, signumption, grammumption, signabulary, signation, and stuckment.

ASL Enquirer: 3rd Issue

2009-06-20T09:59:00.001-07:00

An entertainment vlog: Carl Schroeder publishes the third issue of ASL Enquirer featuring (1) Historians Think Differently; (2) Snow White and ASL; (3) ASL Police Academy; (4) The Colors of the Wind and the Colors of ASL; and (5) SOMEONE.

RachelQZ: the DIVERSE deaf community?

2009-06-20T00:34:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder comments on a phrase that one of his YouTube commentors, RachelQZ, writes to suppress and oppress the Deaf into respecting and accepting oral programs, cued speech, and all other failed programs. We the Deaf are forced to be diverse and be stuck!

The $891 Million Mask: VRS

2009-06-19T22:43:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder challenges to take off the $891 Million mask. VRS has been entertaining the FCC rulemaking policy and profiting from it. Anyone up for taking off the mask?

Introduction to William Perry's Theory

2009-06-19T22:30:00.001-07:00

A discussion vlog: Carl Schroeder discusses William Perry's theory of intellectual development in college years and questions where ASL stands in the college curriculum.